Range

Range

Two geographically separated subspecies of white rhinoceros are recognised, the northern and the southern (1). Once ranging in large numbers throughout north-central Africa south of the Sahara (8), the northern subspecies is now amongst the rarest of all rhinos, occurring only in the Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (1), where as few as 4 animals were counted during intensive surveys in 2006 (9). Meanwhile, the southern subspecies is the most numerous of all the world's rhinos, with its stronghold in South Africa (93%) (10). Much smaller populations exist following reintroductions within the subspecies' former range in Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe and introduced outside their historical range in Zambia, Uganda and Kenya (1) (5) (11).